Christchurch earthquake: Restaurants hard hit

Michael Turner will try to reopen his restaurant, Cafe Valentino, on a limited basis by the weekend. Photo / Greg Bowker

Some of the best known restaurants in Christchurch may never reopen in the same buildings.

Restaurants tended to occupy older buildings because of their features and many of these suffered in the earthquake.

"There's probably 10 shut down and a good number of them will never reopen in their current premises," said Michael Turner, president of the Canterbury branch of the Restaurant Association and the owner of Cafe Valentino.

Turner was carrying out repairs to his restaurant, where he employs 30 people, and will try to reopen on a limited basis before the weekend.

"At least I can keep some of my staff employed or they can at least be employed on reduced hours somehow and we can move forward."

Some restaurants might have to lay off staff unless they had business interruption insurance which could take care of wages, he said.

Within sight of Turner's restaurant in Colombo St were two others that would never reopen in those premises because the buildings would have to be demolished.

Business would return but how quickly could not be forecast.

"With an injection of cash into the economy, then there may be some upside to the whole event - pretty hard to see at the moment though."

Local operators would get together in the next couple of weeks to exchange war stories and see how they could help each other, Turner said.

"At the moment I think most people are concentrating on trying to effect repairs, get in contact with their insurance companies and find out what their position is," he said.

"I've had a couple of calls from operators today and unbelievably a couple of them haven't had insurance."

Turner had also received calls from suppliers looking for business but there was none to be had.

Cafe Valentino had had good numbers of bookings before the earthquake struck.

"The phone has been running hot cancelling those bookings - not that we could service the booking anyway."

It had been a particularly tough winter for the hospitality industry in Christchurch.

"I've been in business for 19 years and it's probably fair to say that it was the worst in that period," Turner

said.

"Things weren't enormously buoyant in the hospitality industry before this and this has just really exacerbated the situation."

Dining was a feel good activity.

"What you got today is people are pretty strained, nerves are frazzled and the last thing on people's minds at this point in time is getting out and dining."